A year ago, our revelation about the next generation of the Giulia caused quite a stir, especially among alfists. At the time, we exclusively revealed that the future Alfa Romeo Giulia to move away from the traditional three-box sedan to adopt an SUV-like crossover design, with a hatchback trunk and fastback profile. If this direction seemed surprising has since been confirmed by the brand's CEOSanto Ficili, who confirmed that it would indeed be a crossover.
But this stylistic choice may seem regrettable, it could also conceal a technical constraint for Alfa Romeo. The move to a crossover may not just be a design trend, but a necessity imposed by battery integration.
Stellantis, which has recently begun developing new electric vehicles, has so far only electric sedans with large battery capacities. Only one model really stands out: the Dodge Charger, but with a length of 5.2 m and a 100 kWh battery. This generous dimension makes it possible to accommodate such an imposing battery while maintaining a classic sedan design.
On the other hand, the future Alfa Romeo Giulia, expected to be around 4.7 m long, poses a real dilemma. The brand's former CEO promised an electric version capable of delivering 1000 hp in Quadrifoglio version 0 to 100 km/h in 2 sec. For such performance, the battery should be substantial, probably at least 100 kWh. But such a battery capacity doesn't seem likely to fit into such a short sedan without significantly altering the interior space or balance of the vehicle.
The emergence of the crossover, which raises the ride height, offers more interior volume, and thus provides more space for the battery, therefore seems an obligatory compromise. A choice that could in fact be a direct consequence of the technical constraints linked to the electrification of the Giulia.
In comparison, the BMW i4 M50a fully electric model, offers 544 hp with an 83.9 kWh battery for a length of 4.8 m. This model demonstrates the perfect fit between battery capacity and car length. The challenge for Alfa Romeo therefore seems to lie in its ability to offer a high-performance version while maintaining a relatively compact and maneuverable vehicle, with a battery large enough to meet its performance promises.
The Stellantis Group's other brands seem to be following a similar path. with their own models. The future Lancia Gamma, like the new DS N8, is also taking a crossover turn, with a structure halfway between sedan and SUV. Are these choices motivated solely by a design trend? Or are these vehicles also designed to incorporate larger batteries, to meet ever-higher expectations of power and range?
| Model | Body shop | Battery | Platform | Length |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| e308 | compact | 54 kWh | EMP2 | 4,3m |
| e408 | crossover | 58 kWh | EMP2 | 4,7m |
| DS n8 | crossover | 73.7 kWh | STLA Medium | 4,8m |
| Lancia Gamma | crossover | ? | STLA Medium | 4,7m |
| Alfa Romeo Giulia | crossover | ? | STLA Large | ? |
| Maserati Granturismo Folgore | coupé | 92 kWh | Giorgio evo | 5m |
| Dodge Charger EV | coupé | 100.5 kWh | STLA Large | 5,2m |
It is therefore possible that the switch to a crossover design for the Giulia is not simply an aesthetic decision, but a choice dictated by new technical constraints electric powertrains. Perhaps if Alfa Romeo had been less greedy about the power of the future electric Giulia, a smaller-capacity battery would have made it possible to avoid the crossover body.
Another 408 and DS8 clone weighing over 2 tonnes!
Thank you electric, thank you Tavarès!
What's the point!?🙄
But what's your comment? What does Tavares have to do with electric cars?
These are imposed by policies
You'd better wake up
Are other manufacturers coming off failures like the 408 or C5X? Are Porsche (Taycan), Audi (e-tron GT) and BMW (i4) betting everything on crossovers and SUVs? Doesn't Tesla have its 3 and S?
Tavares has EVERYTHING to do with these crazy decisions.
The ban was for 2035, but now it's 2025. This is all the more idiotic given that all STLAs are multi-energy.
Except that sales of electric cars are not going to take off. The proof is in the hybrid models planned for the Fiat 500 and future Alfa Romeo models. Tavares is guilty of not understanding the market.
Tavares is guilty of wanting to put the PureTech engine everywhere in the Stellantis brands. Tavares is guilty of Citroën's belated recall of the C3 and DS3, even though the danger of takata airbags has long been known.
Tavares is to blame for Alfa Romeo's all-SUV strategy.
I continue on the Tavares disaster?
@Stanislas Thanks for your comment, that's what I think too.
Couldn't agree more. Like I say YOU GO WOKE YOU GO BROKE, YOU HUG A TREE YOU TAKE IT ON YOUR KNEES.
As much as I don't mind this at Lancia and DS, the problem, in my opinion, lies in the fact that Alfa Romeo is following the same path and using the same technical solutions. This demonstrates a profound misunderstanding of the brand's identity. The first characteristic of today's Giulia is its agility, which can be explained by its balance, low ride height and relatively light chassis, not by its superlative power. The other thing is that decision-makers still haven't understood anything about EVs in 2025. It's better to have a battery that recharges from 10 to 80% in 20 minutes max every 350 kms on the freeway, and a 75kWh sedan that's efficient in its consumption, than an elevated panzer. We therefore opted for an H-shaped battery structure to make room for the footwells and lower the roof height as much as possible. A smaller battery also means a model that pays for itself more quickly, and is therefore sold at a lower price (I thought pricing power had demonstrated its disastrous effect on sales).
okay, with what Fredo says, I'd just add that a range of say 600 kms means 400 kms all highway, which is more than enough for a sedan in this segment; and the weight is less. I hope that the Alfa-style pencil styling and chassis will be successful .... as much as the Giorgio.
For the time being, and given what's happening at Porsche, which is going backwards, it's not looking good.
As much as Alfistis expect Alfa to fit inside their little box - same as Mopar guys in the US want big V8s - Alfa can't survive on Alfistis alone buying Alfa for specific driving situations. Making Alfa more marketable to more buyers is no less a necessity for Alfa survival than Dodge having econoboxes, whatever the folks in power or fanatics want to believe. That also has the advantage of more robust supply chains, meaning better quality. The more of something is made, the better it tends to work on average. Toyota proves this every day.
The PureTech proves it every day too 😉
Alfa Romeo had started to build up its legitimacy again by investing in a platform (those of the Giulia and Stelvio) worthy of its sporting history, and even with simple GME 2.0 engines it worked very well against BMW (which kept the advantage on leasing prices). And this was possible when the Fiat group alone had bought Chrysler. But of course it's impossible to stay the course for even ten years. Nobody here demanded V6s for all models, just a prestige version with an engine derived from a Ferrari production to pull the models. So it worked well, but needed consistency, and then we were told that it was impossible to hybridize the engines, although this had been done at Maserati. Then we were told that it was impossible to electrify the platform, which was done at Maserati. Alfa Romeo is a European premium brand whose history is littered with sports models and supercars, and must be treated as such, whatever the profitability dreams of successive management teams. In several markets within the Group, engines, batteries and other parts can be pooled, but not Peugeot cars that have just been redesigned. Otherwise you damage the brand image and lose everything. Alfa isn't Opel or Dodge, it's an Italian brand that devoted itself to racing right from the start. To become a carrozzeria is to kill the company. Bertone is dead.
Very good comment 👍🏻
Couldn't agree more. Its like the Giugiaro platform and the 2.9 engine, WHY do away with it?? YOU FOOLS, but its what happens when let a NON Italian manage an Italian Brand for better say
Das es geht zeig doch Tesla mit dem Model 3. Mit 78 kWh auf 4,70 und einer Zelltechnologie welche kein High end mehr ist. Trotzdem bietet es eine extrem tiefe Sitzposition. Diese halbherzige Umsetzung von Elektromodellen und das nachfolgende Gejammer ist echt ein Trauerspiel. Wir hatten seit den achzigern 9 Modelle von Fiat und Alfa und sind vor 3 Jahren aufgrund von deren Modelpolitik zu Tesla gegangen.
Maybe the crossover instead of a sedan is due to the batteries.
But this race for power is absurd, 1000 hp, why not 1500 hp to make it even more powerful, we want an Alfa Romeo, not a Bugatti!
And if you want this level of power, you go to Ferrari, not Alfa Romeo.
An Alfa Romeo has to be relatively light, whereas here we're going to end up with a machine weighing over 2 tonnes.
The Giulia Quadrifoglio with 510 and then 520 hp, the GTA and GTAm with 540 hp, all with a contained weight, that's what an Alfa is all about, not something heavy that makes twice as much power.
Without any low-slung cars, whether sedans, compacts or coupes, Alfa Romeos will become irrelevant.
Bravo Stellantis, in just a few years they'll succeed in killing the brand, and doing away with the engines that made Alfa Romeo unique, replacing them with the horrible PureTechs or electric motors seen elsewhere at Stellantis.
If that's the reason, then they'd better really polish it up to make it the best performer in its segment, like the current Giulia Quadrifoglio...
This idea of putting batteries underfoot will go down in the history of the industry's worst ideas. Why not an engine instead of a head? And don't tell me there's a space problem, because in a 500e you can fit 40 kw without amputating the feet or the boot, or making it ugly and unsaleable.
"We had no choice but to make an ugly car" -> better to abstain than to create yet another flop.
Quite frankly, I think that FCA and now Stellentis are doing everything they can to sink Alfa! What's the point of talking about a 1000hp Giulia when you have almost no customers? The directors are completely out of touch. There are plenty of old customers who drive reasonable Alfa cars (like the giulietta) who would be happy to leave with a compact or even a nice, reasonable crossover (the Tonale is too much of a spleen to be what these customers are looking for🙄).
We might have thought that with the departure of cancer Tavares, things could have started again on the right foot, but today we see that this is not the case. Alfa Romeo will no longer be synonymous with beautiful cars, we will only find trucks.
You can't change everything in 2 or 3 months. Unfortunately, Alfa Romeo is going ahead with what Tavares has decided, because there's no turning back.
The scandal is to have let this guy run Stellantis for years, when it was obvious that he was doing anything for the Italian brands.
I couldn't agree more!
What's the point of proposing a 1,000-horsepower Guilia that will be impossible to predict?
What about Maserati's normally exclusive territory?
The Tesla Model 3 and Bmw i4 prove that Alfa can legitimately be expected to produce an electric sedan with traditional styling.
If we're going to produce a car with proportions close to those of a DS8, it will probably be a disaster. Let's hope that STLA large will enable us to do better.
1,000 hp in electric form will be just the thing to beat the competition, like the Giulia against the M3, C63 or RS4 of the time. That's not the point.
On the other hand, if Tesla managed to come up with the Model 3 and BMW the i4, it's probably because, once again, Stellantis saw design on the cheap...
Let's be honest with each other, nobody wants a Giulia crossover... these people need to stop, they're not cut out to run a car company.
@Potté we agree, a lot of amateurism and dogmatism in the decisions made by Tavares and his henchmen.
This is what happens when you a " WOKE " POS, who knows nothing about the brand but how to TRY and line their pockets while FAILING and continue to FAIL because they don't pay attention to the consumer but prefer to spend their time in a phars mind set " OH IM A CEO " while the floor slides from underneath them...SMH. The people who are running the Alfa Romeo sector at Stellantis are bunch of " WOKE " POS trying to push their ideology on the market NOT realizing that IT FAILED. Don't believe me why don't you ask Budlight, Harley Davidson, Jaguar ect,ect. Yea, the list goes on and on and how the hell does Stellantis plan selling Alfa Romeo if they don't advertise? Not to mention how great and reliable their cars turned out this time around. These new Alfas are bullet proof and they look great and even after ten plus years they still turn heads, that just shows you what opportunity's these clowns are wasting.
Please don't use acronyms, foreign people can't understand them.
Thank you, Mr. Tavarès, for the mess you're leaving behind. Alfa Romeo, despite its distant origins, is French. The myth, the sporting heart of the brand is losing everything that made it sporty by trying to make a mayo with opposite ingredients. Who will have the courage to let go of the brand identity that is grafted onto Italian sportiness and style? Wake up and don't let yourself be swayed by profit, which will take care of itself if you keep an identity.
French? Nothing at all. Darracq was based in Milan, and went bankrupt. All Alfa did was take over the workshop, a few chassis to get things started, but there's nothing French about Alfa. That's all we need...
Makes sense, increase power to unnecessary 1000hp and then increase the ride height! And everything else on that kind of car needs to be oversized! No one needs that kind of Giulia. GL with sales.
Destroying the brand, shocking, that is all I can say
How need 1000hp? Its a joke or what? Absurde and pathetic decision from the managment. The company is burning but they still proposed absurd project... I don't know if it would be better for Alfa to be saled to a chinese constructor, they make really good cars now... sad world.
Leider 0 Eigenständigkeit zu erkennen. Leider immer noch keinerlei Gedankengänge zu einem 159er SW Nachfolger !!! Viele Alfistis würden sich über einen bezahlbaren Sport- Kombi freuen! Wieder nur Planungen für ( ich behaupte es einfach Mal) unbezahlbare Designikonen. Stückzahlen 5000 Weltweit??? Was soll das? Soll ich (wir) jetzt zu Opel überschwenken weil Stellantis einen dazu zwingen will? Die bauen z.B. einen schicken, sportlichen Kombi!
Ein echtes Dilemma für Alfa Romeo - Tradition versus technische Realität! 🚗⚡
Klar, ein Crossover-Design mag nicht das sein, was eingefleischte Alfisti erwarten, aber wenn es der einzige Weg ist, eine leistungsstarke Elektro-Giulia mit großer Batterie unterzubringen, bleibt kaum eine Alternative. Die Frage ist: Wird das Crossover-Format das sportliche Fahrgefühl erhalten können, für das Alfa bekannt ist? Oder geht hier ein weiteres ikonisches Modell in der SUV-Welle unter? 🤔